The UK has one of the slowest economic growth rates of all the G20 countries

The UK has one of the slowest economic growth rates of all the G20 countries, new figures revealed yesterday, as George Osborne met finance ministers in Moscow.

House of Commons Library analysis of growth since the November 2010 Spending Review shows that the UK is third from bottom of the G20 league table, with 0.4 per cent growth. Only Japan and Italy have worse figures.

Yet, despite the sluggish economy, employment in Britain is expected to reach its highest level this week. Experts believe employment rose to 29.7 million in the three months to December.

The Chancellor is under pressure to demonstrate in his Budget next month that he is taking positive action to avert a triple-dip recession.

The Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, described the G20 league-table figures as "embarrassing" for Mr Osborne, adding: "Britain has now flatlined for over two and a half years under this Conservative-led government. In the global growth league table we're in the relegation zone, with 17 out of 20 countries, including America, France and Germany doing better than we are.

"The longer our economy stagnates, the more long-term damage will be done. We need urgent action now to kick-start our flatlining economy and help people who are struggling."

I think one problem is the large number of "zombie" companies, which do not contribute meaningfully to growth but are just on life support - just able to service the interest on their debts because of the low current interest rates. If they could be put out of their misery it would leave more room for new and dynamic companies to step in.

Recent examples are HMV and BlockBuster. In fact I read recently that around 50 of BlockBuster's closed stores are no to be taken ovre by Morrisons.

Are you sure workfare is included in the figures (isn't mentioned in the article)?

I still think that the problem is that all the focus is still on the financial sector. The free market ideology seems to apply to all sectors except the financial sector ('too big to fail' and free market ideology don't go well together).

There doesn't seem to be much commitment to get production in goods going. It is hard to see where real growth is going to come from.

The UK government is playing a dangerous bluffing game with the EU. Once the UK is out, it is hard to see how the financial sector will survive. The UK keeps blocking banking reform, I think the risk is that other EU governments get exasperated and unwilling to support the UK.